Kevin Owens Wins Universal & US Championship Titles
At the WWE’s 2016 Draft, Kevin Owens was drafted to Monday Night RAW. In a tournament for the vacant Universal Championship, Owens beat Big Cass, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to win the Universal Championship. Owens lost the title at Fastlane to Goldberg in 22 seconds after a distraction from Chris Jericho. His championship reign lasted 188 days.
The following night on RAW, Owens accepted Jericho’s challenge for a match at WrestleMania 33 as long as Jericho would defend the United States Championship. At WrestleMania, Owens defeated Jericho to become the new United States Champion, winning it for the first time in his career. A week later, Owens was traded to SmackDown as part of the 2017 WWE Superstar Shake-up. At Payback on April 30, Owens lost the title back to Jericho, thus ending his reign at 28 days. Owens would reclaimed the title on the May 2nd episode of SmackDown Live by defeating Jericho, and then attacking and injuring him after the match as well.
At Backlash, Owens defeated AJ Styles by count-out to retain the United States Championship. Owens was later announced as one of the participants in Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank, along with Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, Styles, Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin, in which Corbin emerged victorious.
During a house show at Madison Square Garden on July 7, Owens lost the United States Championship to Styles ending his second reign at 66 days. He regained the title at Battleground and lost it back to Styles two days later on SmackDown in a triple threat match also involving Chris Jericho.
Kevin Owens Drafted Back To RAW
At the October 2019 WWE Draft, Kevin Owens was drafted back to Monday Night RAW. At Survivor Series, Owens competed on Team RAW in a losing effort to Team SmackDown. Owens entered the 2020 Royal Rumble but was eliminated by Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins then challenged Owens to a match at WrestleMania which Owens won, ending their feud.
As part of the 2020 Draft in October, Owens was drafted to the SmackDown brand. Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler on the October 30th episode of SmackDown to qualify for Team SmackDown at Survivor Series. At the event, Team SmackDown lost in a clean sweep by Team RAW.
Owens’ Feuds & Rivalries
In November 2020, Owens reignited his rivalry with Roman Reigns. He challenged him for the Universal Championship at TLC on December 20, and again at the Royal Rumble event on January 31, 2021O. Reigns defeated Owens both times thanks to assistance from Jey Uso.
At Wrestlemania 37, Kevin Owens defeated Sami Zayn in a singles match and attacked Logan Paul after the match. At Hell in a Cell, Owens lost to Sami Zayn. After the pay-per-view, Owens announced he would be taking time off. After a brief hiatus, Owens returned on the July 2 episode of SmackDown, defeating Zayn in a Last Man Standing match to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. At the event, Owens failed to win the contract.
Owens Drafted Back to RAW
As part of the 2021 Draft, Kevin Owens was drafted to the RAW brand. He then entered a storyline with WWE Champion Big E and Seth Rollins which began on the November 1 episode of RAW after Big E hit the Big Ending on Owens after their non-title match. The following week on RAW, Owens attacked Big E after the former’s match against Rollins, thus turning heel for the first time since 2019.
The following week, Owens attacked Finn Bálor following their match, cementing his heel turn. On the November 29 episode of RAW, Owens defeated Big E by disqualification to be added to the WWE Championship match at the Day 1 pay-per-view, making it a triple threat match.
Kevin Owens Re-Signs With WWE
On December 24, Owens re-signed with WWE. At Day 1, Owens was unsuccessful in capturing the title as Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar were also added to the match and Lesnar won the title.
After WWE’s Day 1 pay-per-view, Owens began an alliance with Seth Rollins. On March 7th, Owens and Rollins challenged RK-Bro and Alpha Academy for the RAW Tag Team Championships. Owens and Rollins were not successful in that Triple Threat match. Later that night, Owens announced that he would be hosting “The KO Show” at WrestleMania 38. He invited Stone Cold Steve Austin to be his guest. The next day, Stone Cold accepted Owens’ invite.
At WrestleMania, Owens revealed the invitation on the show was a ruse and challenged Austin to an impromptu No Holds Barred match, which was made official as the main event of night one. Owens lost to Austin after missing a chair shot and being hit with a Stone Cold Stunner. This match served as Austin’s retirement match. Following his loss, Owens was escorted out of the stadium by Dallas police officers.
Kevin Owens’ Feuds
On the following episode of RAW, Kevin Owens admitted that he made a mistake by challenging Austin to a match. He was then interrupted by a clean shaven Elias, who claimed to be Elias’ younger brother named Ezekiel. In the following weeks on RAW, Owens entered a feud with Ezekiel after refusing to believe he was really Elias’s brother. Owens believed that he was actually Elias himself. At Hell in a Cell, Owens defeated Ezekiel. On the August 8 episode of RAW, Owens attacked Ezekiel with an Apron Powerbomb, a move he had not used in years, thus ending their feud. This would be the final appearance of the Ezekiel character in the WWE, as he would go back to performing under the Elias gimmick.
On the September 19th episode of RAW, Owens had help from Johnny Gargano during his match with Austin Theory. This lead caused a backstage argument with Alpha Academy where Owens and Gargano accepted a challenge by Gable for a tag team match the following week. On the next week’s RAW, Owens and Gargano, who had named themselves the Panda Express during their time on the indies despite not actually teaming together, defeated Alpha Academy.
At Survivor Series WarGames on November 26th , Owens along with The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch) and Drew McIntyre lost to The Bloodline in a WarGames match. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2023, Owens lost to Roman Reigns again in an Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match. After the Elimination Chamber main event, Owens saved Sami Zayn from a beatdown from Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso. On the following episode of RAW, Zayn offered an olive branch to Owens and proposed that they team up to bring down The Bloodline together. Owens rejected Sami Zayn’s proposition.
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn Win Tag Team Gold
On the March 17, 2023, episode of SmackDown, Cody Rhodes invited Owens and Zayn to work out their differences so that they can reunite to fight against The Bloodline. But Owens again declined to team up with Zayn. Later that night, Zayn confronted Jey Uso in the ring and was beaten up by The Usos. Kevin Owens ran out to save Zayn and embraced him.
At WrestleMania 39 Night One, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeated The Usos to win the WWE Tag Team Championships. On September 2nd, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens lost the Undisputed WWE Tag Team titles to Damian Priest and Finn Balor at Payback. Their reign lasted 154 days. In a rematch on the September 25th episode of RAW, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn failed to regain their titles.
At WWE’s Payback pay-per-view event, Cody Rhodes had Jey Uso reinstated as a member of RAW but someone had to be traded to SmackDown. On the October 13th episode of SmackDown, new SmackDown General Manager, Nick Aldis, revealed that Kevin Owens had been traded to SmackDown for Jey, in turn splitting Owens and Zayn.
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